Inside - Kidscreen

E3 WRAP
Numbers talk. Industry watchmen at the Entertainment
Software Association (ESA) estimate that 45% of parents
play computer and video games with their children at least
once a week, a 9% increase since 2007. And games rated
E for Everyone now make up the largest chunk of the market,
driving 44% of software sales, according to market research
fi rm The NPD Group. Digital gaming, which encompasses
mobile apps and social network gaming, represents
just 25% of the total gaming market. However, the sector
is steadily growing (up 4% since last year) and is expected
to accelerate. Additionally, the ESA says more than half of
gamers are now playing on their phones or handheld devices,
while eMarketer recently reported that the US social
gaming market will exceed US$1 billion this year—marking
a 28% increase over 2010. Meanwhile, Facebook-dwelling
social games like those belonging to Zynga are readily available
to the reportedly 7.5 million kids under 13 who are registered
on the world’s largest social network.
“Everybody wants a piece of social gaming,” says Martin
Rae, president of California-based Academy of Interactive
Arts and Sciences, which serves as a barometer of trends
within the industry.
Rae and the gamers he represents believe that packaging
experiences and stretching brands and storylines across accessible
platforms are the best ways to reach a young social
gaming demographic that’s constantly on the go. “You really
don’t have to play a console game anymore to experience
gaming, and you can have diff erence bite-sized pieces
of game play spread across diff erent technologies,” says Rae.
“It’s more about the experience than the hardware now.”
For example, with an exclusive Marvel license came
great responsibility for California-based Gazillion Entertainment,
which launched its fi rst social online gaming
experience this past April. Marvel Super Hero Squad Online
allows kids ages six and up to interact with each other and
an array of Marvel superheroes in an open gaming environment.
“The free-to-play market is an untapped market
with opportunities for young kids,” says Jason Robar, VP
and studio manager for Gazillion’s The Amazing Society.
He adds that the company consciously made its foray into
online gaming with a kid-friendly property.
Designated areas within the game are referred to as social
zones and the animations are given customizable emoticons,
since the primary purpose of the game is to socialize
with other players. While the game is free to play, Gazillion is
monetizing the product through micro-transactions. For instance,
US$5 buys 500 units of “gold,” which can be used to
purchase items like heroes and collectible card game packs.
“Now is a unique moment of double-generation gamers.
Kids don’t have to convince their parents because their parents
were gamers, too,” says Robar. Not surprisingly, Gazillion
is using Facebook and Twitter to promote the game to
parents, and each week, new characters are introduced via
Facebook to tease players. “Because we are online, we don’t
have to force kids to go to a store. Persistence is the key to
courting the fandom for Marvel, and online can sustain that
with new information and content.”
36 July/August 2011
New content is certainly on the agenda for the mobile developers at Australia-based Halfbrick
Studios, which has experienced success with its Fruit Ninja app (25 million downloads
and counting). “Mobile, social and casual are really our focus,” says Phil Larsen, director of
marketing at Halfbrick. “But we want to make sure the brand is extended appropriately.” Fruit
Ninja Frenzy is a Facebook take on the kid-friendly fruit-slicing app that will be off ered as a freemium
game (free to play with subsequent micro-transactions to expand game play). Nineyear-old
Halfbrick is setting its sights high with its fi rst social game and intends to attract 15
million monthly users. Larsen hopes to achieve this through existing brand recognition and
special add-ons like weekly fruit-slicing tournaments that will pit friends against one another.
The fruits of Disney’s Playdom acquisition, meanwhile, are fi nally being harvested. The
House of Mouse bought the social gaming startup in 2010 for more than US$760 million
in an eff ort to strengthen its digital gaming portfolio. The biggest Playdom game to launch
since the acquisition, Gardens of Time, debuted on Facebook in April and has since garnered
more than three million daily active users. The hidden-object game is free to play with ingame
bonus options. While Disney’s Interactive Media segment marked a US$100-million
loss in Q2, the company says it is moving full steam ahead with a number of social and mobile
titles in the pipeline that span original as well as branded IP. In fact, a large Disney virtual
world is heading into the mobile app space by late summer, and the company debuted eight
new apps this year—double the number unveiled at E3 2010.
Digital gaming can get old for some players and then others are just not old enough for it. At
Disney, younger-skewing console game Phineas and Ferb Across the 2nd Dimension for Sony
Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and DS is hitting retail this August to coincide with the premiere
of the Disney Channel original movie of the same name.
For the under-seven set, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE), through its exclusive
Sesame Street license, is dishing out a crop of preschool games built around the concept
of co-playing. The new Once Upon a Monster for the Microsoft Kinect, which launches
this fall, introduces traditional Sesame characters to original monsters. Developed for WBIE
by Double Fine Productions, the game is the company’s fourth Sesame Street title and the
fi rst for the controller-free Kinect platform. “Once Upon a Monster directly speaks to sibling
empowerment,” says Jeff Neinstein, director of marketing for WBIE. “Microsoft is really